Nothing posted here for a while - cross the bridge twice a week and they actually seem to be approaching an end game. No more sandblasting tents/equipment. The substructure on the east side appears pretty much renovated and looks like all the ties and tie plates are back. You would think rail is coming soon. Can't see under the bridge from the train but it does look like the large work barges that have been moored there are gone.

The downriver side (Track 1?) appeared to be back in service this morning. Tie clips were installed, barricades removed, and the rail looked to be recently used. Any idea when the speed restriction might be removed? It appears they installed continuous rail on the recently redone side, but, from the train, the other side feels like jointed - is that the reason to again close the upriver side?

We Downeaster riders have been waiting a long time for a speed increase through there, but more importantly the restoration of double track all the way from south of Andover MA to Plaistow NH on a very busy line. It is almost a given that some southbound trains will have to wait north of HHL for a northbound train to clear.I would also note that the 15 mph speed restriction seems to involve more than the bridge as it seem to run as far as the west end of the Bradford MBTA yard, so there may be other work involved (of which I am ignorant).

tobeornot2be wrote:The downriver side (Track 1?) appeared to be back in service this morning. Tie clips were installed, barricades removed, and the rail looked to be recently used. Any idea when the speed restriction might be removed? It appears they installed continuous rail on the recently redone side, but, from the train, the other side feels like jointed - is that the reason to again close the upriver side?

Your tracks are correct, and good guess, they are supposed to close track 2 again one final time to touch up a few things then install new rail.

swist wrote:We Downeaster riders have been waiting a long time for a speed increase through there, but more importantly the restoration of double track all the way from south of Andover MA to Plaistow NH on a very busy line. It is almost a given that some southbound trains will have to wait north of HHL for a northbound train to clear.I would also note that the 15 mph speed restriction seems to involve more than the bridge as it seem to run as far as the west end of the Bradford MBTA yard, so there may be other work involved (of which I am ignorant).

Not sure when the speeds get increased but I would guess they still have to wait for the work to conclude. The other restriction is a 20mph over the switches to the layover yard and hand-operated crossovers just inbound of Bradford Station - this has to do with operating rules and not any particular issue. This only goes away if those crossovers are either taken out of service, have electric locks or are powered. The T probably isn't hot on this because all their trains make Bradford anyway, and their double-decker cars have a 10mph restriction on the short road bridge between Bradford and the river.

I imagine the Bradford curve won't be much higher than it's traditional 35 MPH restriction. A powered crossover at Brad would give the dispatcher some operating flexibility for movements into/out of Haverhill.

The Merrimack River Bridge's third outage phase has been moved up and is effective after the passage of Train 208 on Monday, February 5th. Barring snow (ha!) it should be back in a couple months. I'm guessing the MBTA is gunning for a new Spring schedule to reflect the bridge's completion.